Siberian Education is a memoir of a young criminal.Nikolaj grew up in Bender, Moldova, during the last years of the USSR and the first years after its collapse. That city featured several quarters run by criminal communities, the author's own being one consisting of Siberian expatriates, transplanted by Stalin all the way across the USSR for reasons unknown.Apparently, there are essentially two things that define a Siberian criminal community: their strong sense of community spirit and tradition, particularly in regards with their Orthodox faith, and their fierce resistance against and hatred of state authority, be it a communist one or a new Russian capitalist one, and everyone who represents it. Especially police officers, of course.Such a community has an abundance of rules and traditions for any situation an honest criminal can find himself in. He must master the criminal jargon, which is apparently a rather poetic and lyrical way of greeting other criminals, showing respect and talking indirectly about the subject matter at hand. Every major milestone along a criminal's life path is subject to traditional ceremony and appeals to a higher power. Even such a seemingly simple thing as a child criminal getting a slingshot might require getting permission from the elders and must be done in strict accordance with the rules of the Siberian criminal community.Lilin is a good storyteller, this is a fast, although a very discomforting read. Violence and senseless brutality are everywhere, but especially in the chapter describing the juvenile detention center that Lilin is incarcerated in for a couple of months as a teenager. Consider yourself forewarned, that part is downright sickening, as death and rape are a daily occurrence.One thing I found interesting at first, but later it got weary, is a sort of rambling, stream of consciousness mode of storytelling. The author would start describing an event, then half way through switch to a life story of a criminal we meet during that event, then he would think of another story and tell it even though it is at best tangentially related to the first one, before eventually returning to the original story and completing it.I would also have liked to have seen a bit more introspection about his life as a criminal. Don't get me wrong, the fact that he does no moral pontification on rights and wrongs of such a life during the storytelling is something I consider a plus, because you get a rawer, less obscured picture that way, unburdened by society's norm. It is also completely natural that as a child he did not even consider such matters. It was how he was raised and where he grew up. But later on, when touching on his life as a young adult, it would have been a welcome addition, since it is obvious he did feel something was wrong and decided to go abroad for education, apparently attempting to abandon such life.Read this in Slovene, titled Sibirska vzgoja. Crescere nella Transnistria, una terra di nessuno, significa vivere seguendo regole rigide e ferree, regole che non sfuggono e alle quali bisogna sottostare. "Educazione siberiana" è il racconto di Nicolai Lilin, cresciuto nella terra di nessuno, cresciuto in un luogo in cui sin da bambino, invece dei giocattoli, si imparano a usare le armi, le pistole e a uccidere. Significa crescere in un luogo dalle mille contraddizioni: il crimine e la violenza da un lato l'amicizia, la lealtà dall'altro. Un luogo in cui gli omosessuali sono considerati la feccia della società, ma anche un luogo in cui i disabili si amano nella loro bellezza, perché "voluti dal Signore". In "Educazione siberiana", amore e odio, odio e amore si fondono e si confondono regalando un racconto che non abbandona il lettore trascinandolo sino all'ineluttabile finale.
What do You think about Educación Siberiana (2009)?
I picked this up as a makeweight in a 2 for £x deal. Not the usual sort of book that I would read. I am glad that I read it, but found it hard to get into. At the back of my mind I found it hard to believe the story - too far out of my own experience I suppose. I was also mindful of the rider at the start of the book which states that part is true and part made up.I kept trying to second guess which was which.The descriptions of casual violence are chilling, and the bleak lives of the criminal underworld in post Soviet Russia are disturbing.
—toto
4 stelline perché questo libro è stato un'esperienza nuova. Mi è piaciuto perché ho scoperto tante cose nuove su mondi di cui non conoscevo l'esistenza, a volte ridendo, a volte soffrendo per le diverse storie di ognuno.È vero anche che Lilin scrive come scrivo io, cioè "ammucchia" cose per creare un discorso, e con tutte le parentesi che apre, tu perdi il filo: fortuna il titolo ad ogni capitolo. Comunque sia, interessante e eccitante.
—valerie
Kinda like Sven Hazel, truth interspersed with fiction.
—SandraOlechno
